Shoot day write up

Due the shoot was delayed due to poor weather conditions when we were originally meant to film the shoot, it was rearranged for 2 weeks later. In some ways this gave us an advantage because it meant we had more time to prepare all of our props as we could store them at school. On the day we agreed to meet at 8:50 with all the props and gear for the shoot. When I woke up on the morning of the shoot I was excited on the morning I woke up at the prospect of filming as it wasn't something I had done yet. It was also helpful that we agreed to film it in my boarding house, this meant I was very familiar with the environment ans the room space in which we were using, making it quicker to set up. Before the shoot we were very well prepared in that we had all the props we needed, for example, string, bells, cans, milk cartons and a tent. Having said this, there was a bit of preparation that needed to be done, this including setting up the tent and washing out the cartons and cans to attach to the string, we then had to tie the string to the tent, and then connect it to different parts of the room. Whilst doing this we had to take many things into consideration, for example, we couldn't set up strings where it would be in the way of us when we were filming. The location of where we were shooting was Beatrice Webb House (one of the boarding houses at hurtwood). It was fairly convenient that we did the shoot whilst all the pupils were at school, this meant the house was fairly empty. The one thing that we did have to take into consideration were the staff who lived on the site and also the house workers such as cleaners etc. This meant when were creating the scene we had to bare this in mind, and keep clear passageways so they could continue doing their job. This also meant we had to be prepared for someone to walk through during a shot, meaning we would have to do it again. I feel that we managed to successfully to create the look of our concept, one example of a way we did this was we had to create a morning environment as the character had just woken up. We did this by using a blue gel over the light. Also to avoid excess light coming through due to the sun, we boarded up the windows with old pieces of broken wood. This worked in 2 ways because it did not only stop excess light from getting in but it also was a part of the story and added to the apocalyptic effect as if the character was frightened of some sort of attack from outside. We also had to think about our idea of tying the string to various parts of the room, I feel we did this well, using chair legs, door handles, the fireplace etc.

 I feel that on the day of the shoot we managed to divide the roles between our group very well, we all had a go at everything, for example filming. Having said this we did also use our strengths to our advantage. One example of this was there was a light with a blue gel which needed to be held outside shining in through the boarded windows, this role was rotated between me and Gil, the only other male member of the group. We did this because holding the camera can be quite strenuous on the arms. Mima and Francesca were very useful when it came to the preparation, for example tying the cans and cartons to the string in a way which made it look effective and realistic. The part of the day which I thought I did well was the filming despite not doing a lot of it. The reason I think this is because the piece of filming I did was very difficult as I had to be inside the tent holding the camera, giving a birds eye view of the actor, this was difficult to not distract him as we were in very close proximity. On the day we were lucky in that there weren't any major problems which needed solving, there were a few minor problems like the wooden boarders nearly fell over a few times but there was always someone who was close enough to rescue it. The shoot also went on for longer than we had planned in our schedule. We had planned to finish filming at lunch time but instead we had to return to Beatrice Webb after eating.

Overall, I feel that the shoot was a very successful day and everything went almost exactly to plan. Despite the fact I haven't seen the shots on a computer yet, it felt like we were definitely able to capture some good ones. One thing that I thought went extremely well was the fact that we were actually able to add ideas to the shoot that weren't in our original storyboards. On example of this was customising the speed in which the door handle twisted as the actor went to open the door. Another example of this was coming up with the idea of Adams finger movements as he was holding the axe. This was to show nervousness and to build tension. The one part of the filming which I potentially wished went better was the filming. Despite doing well under the conditions, none of us had a lot of experience of filming, this meant it would often take us a couple of takes before we got it right. The part of the day that I enjoyed the most was the camaraderie and teamwork that we all put in, I feel like everyone worked hard and all wanted to do well, and we knew that we all had to get along and work together for this to realistically happen. When we begin to edit I am looking forward to seeing how the shots look and which ones will be easily to edit and create into a complete piece. The main lesson that I learnt was to prepare largely before the shoot. If you do this is cuts out time that you have to waste setting the scene and making sure all the props are in order.